Marvel Cinematic Universe

[State43]

So, I've officially bitten the bullet and made it all the way through Marvel's Inhumans. I feel like I need a strong pat on the back for that one. Anyone else out there finish it??? Anyway, per usual, here is my full review if anyone particularly gives two craps about the Inhumans TV show. I'm keeping it non-spoilery.

Long story short, IMAX theaters had a few week gap in August for movies where they had nothing, so instead of showing nothing, they approached Marvel about producing a near-cinematic quality Inhumans TV show where IMAX actually funded the first few episodes. Well, Marvel accepted, took their money, found a terrible showrunner in Scott Buck (made Iron Fist TV series), who they hired because he could make things quickly and on the cheap (he literally said this in an interview), spent literally none of IMAX's money, and spit out the garbage that is The Inhumans. Therefore, in describing the end product of this show, ALL of this backstory pretty much plays out in front of you. No wonder IMAX was really bummed with Marvel afterwards.

The story was terrible, the costumes were terrible, the CGI/lack of CGI was abysmal, the sets were bad, most the acting was bad, the characterization of characters was awful, the directing was bad. It was just really hard to find too many redeeming qualities at all in this series. Minus a few special effects, at times, you'd swear this was the product of a bunch of high school students trying to make a low-budget amateur production. Getting more into the characters, you really don't know who to root for in this film because you don't really like anyone. The almost intentionally played out the royal family to be completely unlikable to the point where almost none of them are redeemable, with Medusa being the worst of anybody in the series. Still, you wait for them to be redeemed, which never really happens well at all. Again, I can't stress how bad Medusa was in this series. As for the villain, I thought Iwan Rheon actually was one of the better parts of the series, even though he wasn't very good overall. His writing was just mostly bad, but I'll give him credit for working the best he could with what he was given. Karnak was also a character out there in the series that was decent at times and lastly, I'll give them credit for Lockjaw. Lockjaw was one of the few likable things in the series even though he really didn't do a whole lot outside of teleporting people constantly.

Anyway, moral of the story, this series was made intentionally too quickly and on the cheap, and that is what we got. I don't know if there is too many worse examples of attempted money-grabs out there than this series, which really just makes me angry. Again, I'm just not a Jeph Loeb fan anymore as his stuff is just too inconsistently hit or miss. I just don't get how tight of control the movie side can be with their quality of products, whereas the TV side can not. I also cannot fathom how someone can hire Scott Buck to do another series after seeing what he gave you in Iron Fist? Do they not monitor how things are coming at all??? Anyway, Marvel's Inhumans is no doubt a failure on all levels that I honestly hope they just publicly make disappear from the MCU timeline, and maybe even eventually replace with a movie. Trust me, nobody will care. In fact, I already pretend it did not happen. With that said, I'll soon update my MCU rankings to include this stink pile.

FYI... I've moved on next to watching Gifted, the X-Men TV series on Fox. I've only watched one episodes, but wow, I'm hooked. That first episode was great and contained more entertainment value in it than the entire Inhumans TV series.

I agree on Inhumans. It's as if they thought, hey, lets really make this horrible so people stop asking for it. I think if they introduced a few of the characters through agents of shield and took the same creators of that and slowely morphed them into each other carrying over Caulson, Daisy, Yo yo, Mack, Fitz and Gemma and if need be, May. This trip to outer space arc they are doing this season could have been a trip to introduce the inhumans but what evs. And yes, gifted is a pretty good show. It has it's faults but overall, descent with a dragging arc in the middle of the season.

 

[Triggermv]

I agree on Inhumans. It's as if they thought, hey, lets really make this horrible so people stop asking for it. I think if they introduced a few of the characters through agents of shield and took the same creators of that and slowely morphed them into each other carrying over Caulson, Daisy, Yo yo, Mack, Fitz and Gemma and if need be, May. This trip to outer space arc they are doing this season could have been a trip to introduce the inhumans but what evs. And yes, gifted is a pretty good show. It has it's faults but overall, descent with a dragging arc in the middle of the season.

Good to hear your thoughts on Inhumans as well as Gifted. Regardless, I will say I love these 8-episode series and hope the majority of series gravitate toward that length. 8-episodes is the perfect story-length for most any of these superhero series out there, plus I can knock out an entire season in a week. Therefore, give me more series with less episodes than less series with more episodes.

 

[Triggermv]

As promised after posting my full Marvel's Inhumans review, here is an updated rankings to include it. Spoiler alert.... look really low. Hmmm..... just noticed I have not included Marvel's The Defenders: Season 1 yet either, so I tossed it on there as well.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Thought this movie had the best drama and best writing and story line of all the movies. Its action sequences were probably only second to Civil War as well.
2. Marvel’s The Avengers – Iconic way to pull everything together with the best villain in the MCU. The final battle was so epic and unlike anything we had ever seen up until that point.
3. Captain America: Civil War - Most fun and one of the funniest movies on the list. Also produced the best action sequences, had some of the best character moments, and showcased the best balancing act of so many characters. Biggest downfall was having a very good, but not great story line, which kept it from topping my list.
4. Iron Man – Epic way to start the Universe with an unbelievable star for a headliner. Never got into the Iron Monger villain though.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – Best space epic since the original Star Wars movies. Also was probably the funniest movie of the MCU so far.
6. Marvel's Daredevil: Season 2 - The introduction of Jon Bernthal's Punisher in Season 2 was what truly made this season great and better than Season 2. Had a few pacing issues, but overall, the series only improved all the characters within it from Season 1, but I'm still so-so on all the Electra stuff. Still needs a few more crossovers, but had a few.
7. Marvel’s Daredevil: Season 1 – Loved the street-level more-adult-themed tone of this show. Also contains probably the second best villain in the MCU. Being on Netflix is a great way to un-cuff all the normal problems of making a TV show for network viewing.
8. Ant-Man - Had super-low expectations, but walked away pleasantly surprised. Yet another weak villain, but contained some great comedy with some great actors. Paul Rudd won me over when I once was really skeptical of him.
9. Captain America: The First Avenger – Epic first-half of the movie with Cap’s origin story, but believe it or not, I found Red Skull a little underdeveloped. Loved the WWII time period aspect of this one.
10. Spider-Man: Homecoming - Amazing casting on this movie throughout, with Tom Holland being the best Spider-Man yet. Also featured one of the greatest villains in the MCU yet with Michael Keaton, with one of the best scenes and best twists. Movie just lacked the music score and emotional weight of some of its predecessors.
11. Marvel's Agents of Shield: Season 4 - Best season of AOS so far with a very good two-part story line. Ghost Rider was amazing movie quality all around (casting, acting, visuals, story) and fit perfectly into the story, as well as tying the series to the Doctor Strange multi-verse/mystical/inter-dimensional world. Tons of fun with a lot of great emotion.
12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Huge on the laughs, fun and heart, but a little mediocre on the story and substance. Also, went a little overboard at times where things got a bit too campy. Characters were probably more fun than story.
13. Marvel's Jessica Jones - Series filled with great actors, great drama, good diversity to what we are used to, and one of the best villains in the MCU (Kilgrave). Series suffered most from having probably 3-4 too many episodes, poor pacing, and not enough ties to the overall MCU.
14. Iron Man 2 – Many will mock me, but I actually really enjoyed this movie and actually enjoyed it more than Iron Man 3. Make fun of me all you want, but I didn’t think Whiplash was that bad. I think this movie gets unfairly criticized.
15. Doctor Strange - This was a fairly Marvel formulaic origin story with some ground-breaking visual effects, a mediocre villain, an innovative ending, and some great characters. However, its biggest problem for me is that it was probably just a bit too out there on the magic side to fully be my cup of tea, which is okay. I still enjoyed it.
    
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Fun movie, but suffered from too much CGI action, too many characters, and too many storylines.
17. Iron Man 3 – Don’t know what it is, but I just never really got into this one, and it probably had something to do with the big Mandarin villain twist towards the end. Also never really liked Killian either. Again, I surprisingly like Iron Man 2 better
18. Thor – Don’t know what it is, but I just never got into this storyline or villains as much as the others. However, it is growing on me over time and I now like this more than Thor: The Dark World
19. Thor: Ragnarok - I appreciate them trying to go in a creative new direction on this movie, but it ultimately felt too much like a quirky improv comedy (how he shot it) to me. Went a little too heavy on the comedy, which ultimately offset and mitigated the substance, scale, and weight of the movie. Hela was great villain though.
20. Marvel's Luke Cage: Season 1 - Loved the music angle, loved Cottonmouth as the villain, loved the first 4 episodes. However, this was another Netflix series that really lost its way somewhere in the middle, and I really didn't care for any of the Diamondback stuff. Still enjoyed it, but definitely the worst Netflix series yet.
21. Thor: The Dark World – Criticize me if you will, but I actually liked this movie more than probably most, but after re-watching it recently, it did fall some in my rankings. I now have the origin Thor above it.
22. Marvel’s Agents of Shield: Season 2 – Liked the less cheese and more serious tone than the first season. Also, loved the Inhuman’s storyline. Used to hate Skye, but now don’t mind her. This is definitely the best AOS season so far
23. Marvel’s Agent Carter – Loved the period timepiece aspect of this. Great show.
24. The Incredible Hulk – Good movie, but not great. Never was into Norton for the role or the look they gave theHulk, so I was super glad when the switch was made and they remade the Hulk's appearance.
25. Marvel’s Agents of Shield: Season 1 – Struggled hardcore in the first half-dozen episodes, but then finally picked up when Winter Soldier story line set in and the cheese started to fade. Overall, ended up really enjoying this.
26. Marvel's Agents of Shield: Season 3 - Was VERY up and down throughout. There was times I really liked what they were doing, whereas other times where I really did not like what they were doing. Overall, the series is getting a little tired, too many forced fistfights, and still too high on the cheese factor. Still fun at times though.
27. Marvel's The Defenders: Season 1: Started out alright including a great hallway fight scene earlier on, but then everything fell apart from there in the back half of the season, mostly dragged down by Iron Fist being Iron Fist, poor storytelling, and really poor dialogue. This series was a big let-down for me.
28. Marvel's Agent Carter: Season 2 - Great actors and characters combined with a poor stand-alone story, which lacked substance and true stakes to the MCU
29. Marvel's Iron Fist: Season 1 - A combination of terrible casting/acting from Danny Rand, terrible boring story, poor fight sequences, and too low a budget resulted in Marvel's first major dud for a TV show. At least the back half of the season was much better than the front half.
30. Marvel's Inhumans - Garbage TV show all around. Bad acting, costumes, sets, directing, characterizations, special effects, and storytelling. This TV show was intentionally made fast and on the cheap as a money-grab and it totally shows through.

Its worth noting that lower tier is growing sizable due to Marvel TV's contributions lately.

 

[snowcraig2.0]

http://comicbook.com/marvel/2017/12/04/disney-fox-deal-xmen-avengers-crossover-movie-tv-shows/

 

[Triggermv]

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/marvel-kevin-feige-interview

Here is a good extended conversation with Kevin Feige. Man, I love that dude.

 

[harimad]

Where does Runaways fit into your list?

 

[MNCyGuy]

http://comicbook.com/marvel/2017/12/04/disney-fox-deal-xmen-avengers-crossover-movie-tv-shows/

That Disney/Fox merger going through is going to be a travesty.

 

[Triggermv]

Where does Runaways fit into your list?

Not sure yet since I have not watched any of the Runaways. Unlike Netflix who dumps all their episodes at once, Hulu has decided to string things out by dropping them weekly. Therefore, I'm waiting until they are all out when I will likely sign up for the free month of Hulu, binge them all, then drop it. With that said, I can't wait since I have heard nothing but awesome things. Shoot, I still haven't even found time to watch The Punished yet. I'm currently working through the latest Walking Dead season on Netfix. Too much good content out there and too little time to watch it...... you know.....if I want to maintain a normal healthy life still..... which I try to.

 

[harimad]

Not sure yet since I have not watched any of the Runaways. Unlike Netflix who dumps all their episodes at once, Hulu has decided to string things out by dropping them weekly. Therefore, I'm waiting until they are all out where I will likely sign up for the free month of Hulu, binge them all, then drop it. With that said, I can't wait since I have heard nothing but awesome things. Shoot, I still haven't even found time to watch The Punished yet. I'm currently working through the latest Walking Dead season on Netfix.

I've enjoyed it so far. But my other shows I've watched regularly this fall have been Riverdale and Stranger Things, so fair warning.

 

[Triggermv]

I've enjoyed it so far. But my other shows I've watched regularly this fall have been Riverdale and Stranger Things, so fair warning.

Hey, nothing wrong there. I LOVE both Stranger Things and Riverdale.

 

[3GenClone]

I finished The Punisher on Thursday night - that was the best of the Netflix-Marvel shows so far. All the characters were great. I had some issues with the story at first, but everything was wrapped up very nicely in the end. I was lost at some parts - I would recommend watching Daredevil S2 before diving in to The Punisher as they reference those events a lot. They probably could have done away with the secondary storyline and made this an 8 episode series, but this is probably the first series outside of Daredevil and Jessica Jones that actually had enough content to warrant 13 episodes. Episode 11 was jaw-droppingly awesome in a Quentin Tarantino-way: there were moments where I was sick with the images and effects on the screen, but yet it worked for the overall tone of the series. I can’t wait for Season 2.

 

[Triggermv]

https://screenrant.com/disney-fox-fantastic-4-rights-constantin/2/

For those of you like me who are amped about The Fantastic Four finally coming home to Marvel through a likely Fox purchase by Disney, I guess we all need to hold our horses. Apparently, Fox only owns the distribution rights to any Fantastic Four movie, but not the production rights. Apparently, the production rights are actually owned by Constantin Films and Fox has always just licensed the production rights from them. Therefore, this makes for a sticky situation moving forward between Constantin Films and Disney, and nobody knows how that current licensing agreement is actually set up either. In the end, my guess is that both Marvel and Constantin Films will play game and work something out in the end, but there is no guarantees, which kind of stinks.

 

[Triggermv]

https://screenrant.com/disney-fox-deal-finalized-thursday/

Looks like the latest is that the Fox purchase by Disney is on a "glider" path to be finalized on Thursday. My giddiness to see Marvel's Phase 4 plans might be at an all-time high right now. Oh the possibilities . With that said, no matter how giddy I get, it will still be a while likely before we actually see those plans. Not only will a lot of stuff have to get finalized, but Feige has stated multiple times that he doesn't plan on announcing any new film slates until at least after Infinity War or maybe even the last Avengers film for fear of spoiling things with titles. However, I have a hard time believing he won't at least give us some hints in the meantime.

 

[3GenClone]

https://screenrant.com/disney-fox-deal-finalized-thursday/

Looks like the latest is that the Fox purchase by Disney is on a "glider" path to be finalized on Thursday. My giddiness to see Marvel's Phase 4 plans might be at an all-time high right now. Oh the possibilities . With that said, no matter how giddy I get, it will still be a while likely before we actually see those plans. Not only will a lot of stuff have to get finalized, but Feige has stated multiple times that he doesn't plan on announcing any new film slates until at least after Infinity War or maybe even the last Avengers film for fear of spoiling things with titles. However, I have a hard time believing he won't at least give us some hints in the meantime.

It may not be Feige that announces Phase 4 and beyond. There is some rumor that Rupert Murdoch's son, James, may move from Fox to Disney as well and may even be the replacement for current Disney CEO Bob Iger. Murdoch may want to put the MCU with someone new that can merge the two universes. Feige has been running the MCU for 10 years and it would make sense for him to step aside anyways and bring a fresh take.

 

[Triggermv]

It may not be Feige that announces Phase 4 and beyond. There is some rumor that Rupert Murdoch's son, James, may move from Fox to Disney as well and may even be the replacement for current Disney CEO Bob Iger. Murdoch may want to put the MCU with someone new that can merge the two universes. Feige has been running the MCU for 10 years and it would make sense for him to step aside anyways and bring a fresh take.

Everything is possible, but I have a hard time believing anyone replaces Feige anytime soon. One could argue he is one of the most successful executives of any company out there right now. On the flip side, Feige has never given out any inclination ever of plans to bow out anytime soon. All that dude does is look to the horizon, especially when he talks about having the next 20 films already mapped out. Therefore, regardless of who replaces Iger (I don't think it will be for a while), I'll bet they stick with the mantra of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Shoot, one could easily argue Marvel Studios is their biggest cash cow right now, even more so than Pixar, Star Wars, Disney animation, or even their live-action adaptations. Lets not even mention ESPN, which is the opposite of cash cow right now.

 

[3GenClone]

Netflix announced that there will be a Punisher S2:

 

[Triggermv]

Netflix announced that there will be a Punisher S2:

I found this interesting, not that I didn't think they would do a season 2, but rather where they would do it. I thought there was a chance this might get held out for Disney's upcoming streaming service, but I guess not. At the same time, nobody really knows what exactly the terms are with Netflix for all these characters.

 

[HFCS]

Where does Runaways fit into your list?

I haven't watched Runnaways yet but it's probably my favorite Marvel book of the 2000s. Really excited for it as they nailed it at least visually from the previews. Plus I live right near the LaBrea tar pits now where there "secret base" is hidden so if they keep that accurate it will be even better.

 

[HFCS]

https://screenrant.com/disney-fox-fantastic-4-rights-constantin/2/

For those of you like me who are amped about The Fantastic Four finally coming home to Marvel through a likely Fox purchase by Disney, I guess we all need to hold our horses. Apparently, Fox only owns the distribution rights to any Fantastic Four movie, but not the production rights. Apparently, the production rights are actually owned by Constantin Films and Fox has always just licensed the production rights from them. Therefore, this makes for a sticky situation moving forward between Constantin Films and Disney, and nobody knows how that current licensing agreement is actually set up either. In the end, my guess is that both Marvel and Constantin Films will play game and work something out in the end, but there is no guarantees, which kind of stinks.

I've never been a huge FF fan but I am nuts about Surfer, Galactus and all things cosmic Marvel. My dream is that Marvel pretends the FF Surfer movie never existed and simply retells what is the best comic book story of the silver age, "The Coming of Galactus!".

 

[Triggermv]

I've never been a huge FF fan but I am nuts about Surfer, Galactus and all things cosmic Marvel. My dream is that Marvel pretends the FF Surfer movie never existed and simply retells what is the best comic book story of the silver age, "The Coming of Galactus!".

There is no doubt most of the potential lies more in the FF villains than the heroes. However, I'm now ready to see what Disney can do with the FF. I wouldn't have said that 5 years ago, but I'm ready now.